As the holiday season approaches, and time and tempers run short, just remember the magic words: "Please" and "thank you." If you think that's corny, then here's an option – sage words from … somebody or other, who once said, "Good manners will take you far."
To help us along the correct path is this timely trio with the kind of wisdom that never goes out of style.
• "Emily Post's Etiquette: Manners for a New World" by four of Post's great-great-grandchildren and the Emily Post Institute (William Morrow, $39.99, 723 pages): "Good manners reflect an innate sense of respect for self," wrote the late Emily Post in her first book, "Etiquette," a best-seller in 1922. Her advice quickly became the final word in how to properly conduct oneself in myriad situations. This super-updated 18th edition expands that foundation to cover the digital age. There's more advice at www.etiquettedaily.com.
• "How To Behave: A Guide to Modern Manners" by Caroline Tiger (Quirk, $14.95, 224 pages): This one is more of a step-by-step for the manners-challenged, the folks who need a plan to navigate social situations. Included are manners guides to airplane seating, office cubicles, elevators, concerts and personal ads. Email, smartphone and social media etiquette are here, too. Here's a tip when in a bar: "Don't buy a drink for anyone without checking first to see if that person is accompanied by a date."
• "Would It Kill You To Stop Doing That? A Modern Guide to Manners" by Henry Alford (Twelve, $24.99, 256 pages): This is the loosest of the three, as "investigative humorist" Alford goes about exploring the world of good and bad manners. He ends up volunteering as an online etiquette coach.
More coffee table books
Last week, this column named several spectacular coffee table books suitable for holiday gift-giving and for showing off in your living room. Let's add these:
• "The Louvre: All the Paintings" by Erich Lessing and Vincent Pomarede (Black Dog & Leventhal, $75, 784 pages): Bring the world's most esteemed art museum home with this incredible work. Literally all the Louvre's 3,022 paintings are here, annotated by art experts. Included is a "supportive" DVD-ROM.
• "A Perfect Haze: The Illustrated History of the Monterey International Pop Festival" by Harvey and Kenneth Kubernik (Santa Monica Press, $45, 288 pages): They're here in photos and words: Country Joe McDonald, Jefferson Airplane, Otis Redding, Janis Joplin, Hugh Masekela, Jimi Hendrix. The list is long, the music was loud. And remember this: Eric Burdon and the Animals sang a tribute to the festival, titled "Monterey."
• "Frozen Planet: A World Beyond Imagination" by Alastair Fothergill and Vanessa Berlowitz (Firefly, $39.95, 312 pages): This companion to the Discovery Channel's upcoming cable-TV special, "Frozen Planet" takes armchair adventurers from pole to pole and season to season. Think in terms of icebergs, glaciers, killer whales, penguins, polar bears – brrrr!
Northern California ties
Let's round up some titles with Northern California connections, either by author or by setting:
• "Through Phantom Eyes" by Theodora Bruns (iUniverse, $28.95, 298 pages): This is the fourth novel in a series delving in detail into the imaginary life and times of Erik, the "disfigured musical genius" more popularly known as the Phantom of the Opera.
• "The Gentlemen's Sport & Social Club" by Joe Petterle (Langdon Street, $19.95, 236 pages): Set in the Sierra foothills, the books follows a disillusioned retiree who lives a hermit's life until a strange woman shows him a whole new world. Petterle is a former principal of El Camino High School.
• "WW II Prisoner of War: How I Survived" by Len Kovar (Koho Pono, $16.95, 178 pages): The downing of his plane over enemy lines was the beginning of the bombadier-navigator's struggle to survive a German POW camp. With photos and letters. Kovar lives in Carmichael.
• "The Curious Tale of Carter Nicholsworth" by Michael Fox (Cider House, $13.95, 359 pages): "Open the door to possibility," writes the author, a Sacramentan and psychologist. And he does, sending a teenage boy into a fantasy world on a noble mission. Dangers and life lessons abound.
• "The Third Floor" by Judi Loren Grace (Jetstream, $14.99, 208 pages): The Chico-based writer opens the door on an era when pregnant teen girls were sent to homes for unwed mothers and had to give up their babies. The protagonist is 15.
LET US KNOW
If you have information on author appearances, book sales, writing seminars, writers club meetings or other book-related special events, e-mail it to bookmarks@sacbee.com at least two weeks before the event. To read the online calendar, go to www.sacbee.com/books. Questions? Call The Bee's Allen Pierleoni, (916) 321-1128.
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The Bee's Allen Pierleoni can be reached at (916) 321-1128 or apierleoni@sacbee.com. Contact him with news of coming literary events that are open to the public.
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